Boulder, CO (PRWEB) May 11, 2012
Data display specialist Windward has issued a new white paper that examines how spreadsheets enable companies of all sizes and industries to gain insight into crucial business data. “Microsoft Excel: A Superb Reporting Tool” describes the top ten reasons why Excel is the foundation of a full-blown reporting program and evaluates how Excel reports save businesses time and money.
“We’ve all seen numerous articles recently proclaiming how the spreadsheet is dead, and this paper demonstrates how unfounded those claims are,” says Shirley Clawson, CEO. “The spreadsheet, and in particular Microsoft Excel, is and continues to be a valuable business tool. At Windward, we take the power and ease of Excel report design and its formula logic, to any type of data source, providing non-IT folks with a powerful report writer that functions within the program they already know, Excel.”
Some of the benefits of Excel report templates described in the paper include:
Fast report design. At its core, Excel is an intuitive interface. The ribbon displays logical groups of commands and features, and drop-down galleries quickly get users to the tools they need.
Intelligent formulas. Intelligent reference expansion allows a report to expand for as many rows as necessary, based on the data called from a database or other data source, without the report designer needing to know in advance how many rows to create in a table.
The ability to work within one program. Users whose data is stored in Excel never have to leave the software. Full-featured Excel reports allow for the insertion of data directly instead of being forced to format or export that data, saving time and eliminating the risk of data corruption.
Windward’s report template design tool, AutoTag, extends the power of Microsoft Excel. An add-in for Microsoft Office, it works by allowing business users build upon the power of Excel reporting to create professional templates without relying on IT staff. Via a series of API calls, Windward pulls data from a wide range of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, DB2, Oracle, XML files and SQL databases, and merges the data with the templates.
“Microsoft Excel: A Superb Reporting Tool” can be viewed and downloaded here.
About Windward
Windward offers business intelligence, enterprise reporting, document generation and Web-based business intelligence solutions. Launched in 2002, Windward is the only full-featured, robust Java and .NET engine to use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as a layout tool, putting template design and report and document generation power in the hands of the end user. Any Office user can easily and securely create reports and documents with almost no learning curve. Additionally, OEMs and VARs use Windwards reporting component.
Windward works by merging any XML, SQL or custom data sourceor any combination thereofwith a Microsoft Office report template. It feeds data into the template to create a what-you-see-is-what-you-get report or document that can be generated in DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PDF, HTML, direct to printer, RTF, XLS, WordML, TXT, and CSV. Windward runs as a standalone application or in an enterprise computing environment. Also unique, Windward implements in hours, offers affordable server-based pricing, and offers prompt, fantastic technical support via a 24/7 support forum and support contracts. A free trial of Windward’s products is available at http://www.windward.net.
The Windward user group spans 70 countries. User applications include financial statements, inventory reports, product-usage reports, purchase orders, invoices, training certificates, timesheets, and licenses. Other applications include reporting to meet requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, Patriot Act, ARRA, HIPAA, Health Level Seven, Gramm-Leach-Blailey, Basel II, and other U.S. and international acts and accords affecting financial services, real estate, government, and insurance industries and the consultants and integrators serving them.
